Hard to believe, but writer, producer, and label head Orrin Keepnews has been actively involved in nearly every aspect of the development of American jazz for over 50 years now. Last year the Concord Music Group began a series of reissues to commemorate his legacy as producer, from his early beginnings as co-founder of Riverside Records with Bill Grauer through his own Milestone imprint in the late ‘60s and ‘70s. The label is releasing this “collector series” not only with a 24-bit mastering job on each, but new liners from Keepnews himself, which contain jewels of session recollections, random anecdotes about the players, and clarifications on dates and musicians.

For my money, there is no finer piano trio record than Bill Evans’ Portrait in Jazz (1959), although I’d agree wholeheartedly that the following Waltz for Debby (1961) is just as sublime. Few of the selections in this collection benefit more from the remastering than Portrait, the rich pastels of Evans’ voicings taking on a new life as the brittleness of the original recording is remedied, and bassist Scott LaFaro’s invaluable presence in the mix is increased tenfold. If you’re not completely swooned by “Spring Is Here” or the group’s interpretation of “Autumn Leaves,” you’re missing a lot more than just a pulse. Absolutely timeless and unequivocally essential. Wes Montgomery’s breakthrough The Incredible Jazz Guitar (1960) is another welcome rediscovery, arguably his finest hour and a far cry from his late-career schmaltz-with-strings sessions with producer Creed Taylor. The raw intensity between the quartet on opener “Airegin” is still incendiary and fresh, and Montgomery’s touch on the ballads like “In Your Own Sweet Way” is exquisite. Everything about what made the leader such a sensation and “the best thing to happen to the guitar since Charlie Christian” is here in spades: blocky piano-like chords, thumb-picked flights of 16th notes, his signature octave runs that sound almost inhuman. This is one of those “if you could only own one by such-and-such artist” records whose rewards must surpass a hundred listens.

“Mr. Walker” – Wes Montgomery 4:32 (The Incredible Jazz Guitar, Riverside 1960)

Montgomery’s meeting with vibraphonist Milt Jackson on Bags Meets Wes! (1961) has been repackaged enough times to the point of absurdity, but it remains a solid set and one of the highlights of the latter’s discography (his work with the Modern Jazz Quartet excluded, of course); Sam Jones’ bass is captured beautifully in the left channel on this edition. Montgomery also appears in fine form on Nat Adderley’s Work Song (1960), a record that has been on my wish list for years, and despite my generally tepid response to blues-based blowing sessions these days, it’s a pretty infectious listen. Not a ‘classic’ by any means, but certainly a worthy addition (though the analog distortion on “Pretty Memory” is curiously unnerving). Coleman Hawkins’ career-reviving The Hawk Flies High (1957) is also a first encounter for me, an immensely satisfying listen that offers further insight into Hawk’s ingenious adaptation to practically any setting, even one as odd as one that includes the presence of trumpeter Idrees Suliemann and trombonist J. J. Johnson.

“Laura” – Coleman Hawkins 4:34 (The Hawk Flies High, Riverside (1957)

Thelonious Monk was Riverside’s first major signing, so it’s hardly surprising that the pianist is represented in the Keepnews Collection again for a third time (proceeded by At Town Hall [1959] and Plays Duke Ellington [1955]). The stories behind the recording of Brilliant Corners (1956) are almost hilariously over-the-top – how the title track was virtually cursed from the start and meticulously assembled from 24 (!) takes, to a pissed-off Oscar Pettiford miming his bass playing to spite the leader, sending the engineer into a near-mental breakdown – and yet despite all of its flaws, it remains both fascinating and entertaining as ever. Keepnews’ liner notes in this new edition are indispensable and almost worth the purchase price of the disc alone. Also present during the Brilliant Corners fiasco was tenor giant Sonny Rollins, whose underrated Freedom Suite (1958) deserves more than its current footnote status in trajectory of his career. The twenty-minute tour-de-force of the title track tends to overshadow the brief afterthoughts of standards on side two, making for a rather lopsided listening experience, but if nothing else the record is important in the development of Rollins’ compositional talents, which tend to get overlooked in discussions of his oeuvre.

“Brilliant Corners” – Thelonius Monk 7:47 (Brilliant Corners, Riverside 1956)

I can think of a dozen records from pianist McCoy Tyner’s catalogue that deserve the 24-bit reissue treatment more than his bloated Fly with the Wind (1976) project (namely Sahara [1972] and Trident [1975]), but the remastering job here removes some of the original CD transfer’s chalkiness, helping to spotlight the impeccable air-tightness of a rhythm section like Ron Carter and Billy Cobham. Still, I’ve never been sold on the pairing of Tyner’s muscular, full-bodied playing with the dense sonorities of a string section, and the record mostly sinks under its own weight. Cannonball Adderley’s In New York (1962) is another head-scratcher, one of the lesser outings in a long series of platters for Capitol and OJC in the early ‘60s. Recorded with his working sextet at the time – which included brother Nat and Yusef Lateef on horns, plus a young Joe Zawinul – the session rarely rises above mere competency; this is the era when Adderley seemed stuck in an endless recycling of his own jollied-up licks and phrases, churning out album after album of good-time nightclub jazz in an assembly line fashion. Trumpeter Blue Mitchell’s Blue Soul (1959) fares better in the R&B-jazz category, a slick and soulful date with a band that can’t be faulted, and the electricity between the leader and Jimmy Heath’s tenor sax makes up for the rather run-of-the-mill material.

“Park Avenue Petite” – Blue Mitchell 3:58 (Blue Soul, Original Jazz Classics 1959)